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Shalom.
I'd like to introduce you to the amazing story of Hebrew, and how I’ve lost the Bible!
Please notice that I’m a layman, and this is a “rough cut” version.
To tell a long story short Hebrew was spoken here in Israel about 2500 years ago. We wrote The Book. Then we were conquered by the Romans, have revolted and were exiled.
Sometime later, Hebrew became a Holly language. It was not to be used for everyday needs, only for prayer and study. Instead Aramaic and later Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish) and Yiddish (German variant) were used for communication between Jews of different Galuyot (countries of exile).
About a hundred years ago, a revolution occurred. One person called Eliezer Ben-Yehuda single-handedly revived the language. He raised his son entirely through Hebrew, shielding him from exposure to any other language. Fighting his ultra orthodox environment and his own fears that he’s damaging his son by raising him on a dead language, he has proven that the rumors of the death of Hebrew were a little early.
For some duration we were in a unique position of essentially pressing “play” on a “paused” language. This means that the language I learnt to read in, during the 60s, was not much different than that of the bible. During high school we’ve also learnt a little bit of Aramic when studying the Talmud, providing us with a little additional perspective on Hebrew (as the two languages are related).
Then, around the age of 14, I started reading English. I discovered Sci-Fi and throughout high school have read a few English books a week.
Lately I’ve opened the Bible, and found out that I no longer understand most of the tougher parts. I feel I’ve lost something important.
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